


Of Cookies and Christmas Trees

by OrangeRaven989



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bad Cooking, Christmas, Christmas Cookies, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Kissing, Mistletoe, Singing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:40:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28268526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrangeRaven989/pseuds/OrangeRaven989
Summary: Ashe and Annette are spending their first Christmas together. Ashe does the decorating 'cause he's tall and not clumsy. Annette does the baking 'cause she wants to prove she can.Things go awry, as expected.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Of Cookies and Christmas Trees

**Author's Note:**

> Wanted to get a short Christmas story in before the season ended! My last Annette/Ashe one was a but angsty, so here's some pure fluff for this adorable pair.
> 
> The best laid schemes o' cookies an' Christmas trees gang aft a-gley.
> 
> Happy holidays!

The Christmas tree loomed before him, staring him down. Ashe stared back, squaring off against it as if it were an enemy on a battlefield and he were a gallant knight. Then he chuckled at the absurdity. It was just a Christmas tree. There was no reason he couldn’t decorate it. No reason at all. The boxes of ornaments and lights had already been hauled up from storage and laid out across the living room floor. All he needed to do was tap into his creativity.

But he was the tall one, so the job fell to him. Otherwise his clumsy girlfriend would have to get up on a ladder, and… well, that just wasn’t going to happen.

His ears perked. From the kitchen came the soft sound of singing, quiet enough that she probably thought he couldn’t hear it. A Christmas song, one of the jazzy lounge-singer ones. His heart swelled. Her voice was so pretty, and the times when he would just happen to hear her unencumbered, no inhibitions, were one of the (many) absolute joys of finally moving in with Annette Fantine Dominic. They’d been dating for over a year already but finally made the leap to live together, and now Christmas was already here. Time really did fly.

But he still had decorating to do. He knew if he complimented her singing it would only make her clam up, so instead he left her to her task—baking the Christmas cookies—and visualized how he was going to begin stringing up the lights. It wasn’t a task he usually tackled alone—most years he’d had the help of his siblings, who were often more than happy to do the bulk of the grunt work. Now he was on his own, though he had a couple of suggestions written down from his master-decorator girlfriend.

He chuckled. If only he could trust her on a ladder. Then he could do the baking and she could handle the decorating—each playing to their strengths. But, then again, how would they each learn new things if they always kept to the familiar?

So he consulted his notes, which reminded him not to neglect the inside of the tree. String the lights as close to the trunk as possible, and then move on to the outside. That way the tree will look like it’s glowing from within. He never would have thought of that.

He climbed the stepstool and began to loop the first string of lights around the top of the tree, grinning at the increase in volume of the song from the next room. When she got to the part about Mom and Dad hardly being able to wait for school to start again he was worried the downstairs neighbors would be able to hear. Then she must have realized, and she immediately lowered the volume back to barely audible levels. God, she was the most adorable thing he’d ever seen. He could hear her groan.

“It sounds wonderful,” Ashe said, unable to hold back any longer.

She groaned again. “Just pretend you didn’t hear anything!”

“I could never.”

“Well, try!” she shot back. “Or you don’t get any cookies!”

Now _that_ was a punishment he didn’t want to risk, so he sealed his lips and returned to stringing the tree, which was actually a lot more backbreaking than he expected. He could already feel the soreness in his lower back, which was totally ridiculous because he wasn’t even thirty yet and there was no way he was that out of shape. But still, he couldn’t deny it. Maybe if he didn’t bug her too much he could convince Annette to give him a back rub when all was said and done. That would be nice.

But getting the lights deep into the tree was also proving difficult, and he could feel the needles and the branches scratching his hands and arms every time he reached in to wrap a strand around the trunk. He wasn’t even sure if he was doing it right. He hadn’t plugged the lights in yet, so they were dark against the dark backdrop of the tree, and eventually they became impossible to see. He couldn’t tell if he was missing spots. Plugging the lights in first may have been the better play, but then he’d have to manage the outlet as well and that just wasn’t going to work.

He finished a strand and stood back, trying in vain to massage his own shoulders and stretch a little. He closed his eyes and breathed in deep, the scent of baking cookies coming from the kitchen. She was singing again, low and muddled, but it was still nice. Her voice washed over him, faint as it was, and he almost felt his aches disappear. He’d always loved her singing, even though she didn’t do it in front of him very often. She’d sing in the car with him, radio blasting, both of them making fools of themselves. That was different. But singing just to sing? Not likely.

He had one memory of a party they’d gone to early in their relationship—Hilda had thrown an extravagant event for her birthday, and there’d been a karaoke machine. He remembered seeing Annette’s eyes light up, but then her cheeks turned pink and she feigned disinterest for the vast majority of the night. Even when Hilda egged her on, she passed. But then she got a little drunk. And that just changed everything.

There was just something about watching her let loose and sing at the top of her voice, not caring what anyone else thought. He was so proud of her in those moments, and proud to be her boyfriend. To have someone so full of light and sunshine like that want him to be a part of her life. She was getting louder in the kitchen again, and he smiled and listened for a few moments before going back in for round two against the tree.

He was about halfway done with the second strand of lights when he smelled something funny. Almost like… burning. Oh. Oh no. He slowly turned his head in time to see the faintest wisp of smoke emanating from the kitchen, and he quickly dropped the lights and hurried into the room.

Annette was already panicking, digging through the closet to find the fire extinguisher. “Oh god oh god oh god,” she was muttering, tossing things aside without a care until she found what she was looking for.

Ashe darted to the oven and turned it off before pulling the door open and giving her enough space to spray the interior with the extinguisher. He didn’t even know if there were flames or not, but the last thing they needed was to have the fire alarm in the building go off and force everyone out into the snow. She stopped spraying, and then everything settled. They stood together for a long moment, staring at the oven and the spray-covered cookies within.

“Um,” Annette began. She turned and glanced nervously at Ashe. “I swear I put the right number on the timer.”

“I believe you,” Ashe lied with a knowing grin. “At least you managed to get it under control before it got too bad.”

Her face was flushed red. She groaned. “I really wanted to bake cookies, too. I really thought I could pull it off.”

Ashe shrugged. “If it makes you feel any better, I can’t string that tree to save my life,” he said, feeling the warmth rise to his cheeks as well. “I’ve got scratches all up and down my arms, and my back is killing me.”

She snorted. “You’re an old man.”

“Hey, don’t be mean.”

She leaned against him and sighed. “Guess we’re both better off sticking with what we’re good at, huh?”

He slipped his arm around her, his heart thumping. Despite dating for well over a year now he still found himself getting fluttery when she was this close. Taking a deep breath, he buried his nose in her hair and pressed a kiss into the top of her head.

“I still don’t trust you on a ladder,” he said.

She leaned back and caught his eye, sticking her tongue out. “Now who’s being mean?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he replied, stifling a laugh. “I’ll start working on some cookies tomorrow if you agree to do the tree.”

Tugging his arm, she began to pull him toward the living room. “Sure, but I gotta see just how bad of a job you did.”

He let her tug him into the room and felt his cheeks flush when she laughed at the patchy job he did on the lights. Looking at it now, from this distance, it was obvious that he’d missed entire sections of the tree. But she was laughing, and the sound of it was music to his ears. He loved her laugh. He loved everything about her. And no matter what, no matter how bad they did at preparing their first Christmas together, as long as he had her he would be happy.

When she finally collected herself she glanced up at the doorway, eyes widening.

“Hey,” she said, pointing. “Did you put up the mistletoe?”

He nodded.

She raised her eyebrows expectantly. “Well? You gonna?”

His cheeks kept burning, but he smiled and leaned in. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in the rest of the way, meeting his lips with her own. He took her in his arms, holding her tight, feeling her warmth despite the cold. She was so soft, so sweet, and he lost himself in her. Yes, as long as he had her, everything was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Find me on Twitter: [OrangeRaven989](https://twitter.com/OrangeRaven989)


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